1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to light vehicles such as three-wheeled automotive vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved light vehicle which has a roof fixedly supported on struts extending upward from the vehicle body and also has an improved seat-supporting mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light vehicle provided with a roof is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI-3-25090. The disclosed light vehicle is a three-wheeled automotive vehicle having a single front wheel mounted on a front portion of the vehicle body, a pair of rear wheels mounted on rear portions of the vehicle body, and a rear trunk fixed to a rear end portion of the vehicle body. The rear trunk is in the form of a box or case that is normally covered with an openable lid. A roof support member is mounted on a front portion of the rear trunk widthwise of the vehicle, and the vehicle roof is fixedly supported on a U-shaped roof stay fixed to the top of the roof support.
In this disclosed conventional light vehicle, the rear trunk lid is pivotally connected to the upper end of the trunk body by means of a hinge, so as to open and close the trunk. Specifically, the lid is coupled at its front end to the front end of the trunk body by means of a metal locking member such as a conventional buckle-like fastener. Thus, as the lid is moved about the hinge to a trunk-opening position, it undesirably contacts vertical roof-supporting struts, which would make it difficult to move the lid to a sufficiently open position. Thus, luggage or other objects can not be put in or out of the trunk easily, which would lead to poor usability of the trunk. Further, because the lid requires the rear metal locking in addition to the front hinge, the locking mechanism for the lid would undesirably become complicated in structure. Therefore, it has been felt that significant improvements should be made to provide a simplified lid locking mechanism for use in the light vehicle.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI-3-16888 discloses another light vehicle, but this publication and the above-discussed HEI-3-25090 publication both fail to show details of a seat structure for the light vehicles.
In many of the conventional seat supporting mechanism for two-wheeled vehicles, a seat supporting frame, such as a seat post or seat rail, is mounted on main frames, and a seat bottom plate is pivotably attached at one end thereof to the support frame and detachably attached at the other end thereof to the support frame. However, these conventional seat supporting mechanisms are not satisfactory in many ways. First, they are constructed of a number of component parts, making the overall structure too complicated. Also, they require many assembly steps, thus requiring very cumbersome and time-consuming assembly work. Further, the seat supporting mechanism including a hinge and a seat rest must have sufficient rigidity and mechanical strength, because the seat has to be frequently moved to open and close a small compartment provided thereunder, where fuel- and oil-feeding tanks are located, such as for supplying fuel or oil to the corresponding tank and because the seat is subjected to relatively great forward/rearward force or jolt when the vehicle starts moving, accelerating or decelerating.
Where an electric three-wheeled automotive vehicle is employed, a heavy battery, as an electric power source, is preferably provided at a low level on the vehicle, in order to lower the center of gravity of the vehicle and keep good weight balance in the forward/rearward direction of the vehicle. It is also preferable that the heavy battery be located centrally in the forward/rearward direction of the vehicle and particularly underneath the seat on which the driver's (and other passenger's) weight rests.
However, in such light vehicles where the heavy battery is located underneath the seat, maintenance or other work on the battery can not be carried out easily, particularly if the fuel-feeding tank is provided underneath the seat and the seat is pivoted about the hinge for refueling as in the conventional light vehicles equipped with an internal combustion engine. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to perform maintenance on a battery that is located deep under the hinged seat.
Therefore, in the light vehicles carrying the battery at a low level thereof, it is desirable that the seat be openable as fully as possible, be easily attached and detached, be simple in structure, and be supported reliably.